The cloth take up roll of a single cylinder plain jersey circular knitting machine is supported for rotation beneath the needle cylinder and on downwardly extending support brackets. It is the normal practice to install cloth take up safety gates which extend between the support legs of the machine and from the needle cylinder bed plate to the floor. One or more of these safety gates is supported for horizontal swinging movement between open and closed positions to permit the removal of the cloth take up roll and to permit the operator to repair press-offs and the like. However, this conventional type of safety gate requires a considerable amount of aisle space to horizontally swing the same between the closed and open positions. These single-piece safety gates do not provide protection for the operator when the gate is opened to repair press-offs or to begin knitting and guide the knit cloth to the take up roll.
In circular knitting machines provided with both a needle cylinder and a dial for knitting rib fabrics and the like, it is the usual practice to provide an intermediate bed plate spaced below the needle cylinder support-bed plate and to support and drive the cloth take up roll from this intermediate bed plate, thereby requiring a complicated gear drive arrangement for the cloth take up roll. In this type of cylinder and dial circular knitting machine, the safety gates extend between the support legs and from the intermediate bed plate to the floor while the space between the intermediate gear plate and the needle cylinder support bed plate remains open.